For those fans that are still interested, even a little bit, in the Amir Khan-Kell Brook, will they, won’t they fight saga (and it sure is growing tiresome), Khan has announced he will not fight Brook unless Brook takes on and gets past his IBF mandatory at 147, Errol Spence Junior.
Brook has tried everything to get Khan to fight him; recently taking Khan up on his reported 70-30 purse split demand by offering a deal where the winner between them would pick up a 70-30 share of the purse. But Khan, in speaking with The Star, says there is no chance he will fight Brook next.
“It was a little bit silly to be talking, having that little row with him on social media. I think just let Kell deal with his mandatory,” Khan said. “I could fight the winner of that to give myself another option. Kell can go ahead against Errol Spence and then the winner of that is someone I could fight. That could be my second fight this year in November.”
As for Khan’s first fight of this year, he has spoken about having a “tune-up,” as well as of facing the winner of the March unification showdown between Danny Garcia (in what would be a rematch of the 2012 fight that saw Garcia stop Khan in the fourth round down at 140-pounds) and Keith Thurman.
So will Brook agree to defend against (very patient) mandatory Spence, or will he make the move up to 154, as promoter Eddie Hearn suggests is a possibility? And if Brook does fight Spence – for many people the hottest welterweight on the scene today – and manages to beat him, would Khan then really agree to fight him, finally?
Brook is running out of patience with regards to Khan, while Spence is running out of patience waiting for his earned shot at Brook’s IBF belt. Fans everywhere are also growing weary. In an ideal world, Brook would indeed fight Spence next and then Khan, after he’s boxed a return fight from the heavy loss to Canelo Alvarez, would fight the winner.
Certainly this scenario would be a lot better than what we have now: a lot of talking and posturing and nothing else.